I’m a Libertarian, and I’m No Longer for Open Borders

Because I believe in life, liberty, and property, I have come to the conclusion that these ideas cannot flourish with the state’s central planning of society under the guise of welcoming in immigrants.

Recently, I was denied entrance into a libertarian group because they were afraid I was some kind of anti-libertarian troll, and that adding people to their group indiscriminately who don’t actually believe in libertarianism would cause the group to degenerate into a non-libertarian group.

What’s also funny is that I’ve been criticized for being anti-open borders because I believe if we allow in too many people from Marxist countries indiscriminately, the country would ultimately become Marxist and we should therefore remove incentives for immigration.

Interesting how the defense of private property begins to vanish when yours isn’t at stake, isn’t it? It’s easy to say “Immigration is a good thing! We should open the borders!” from an area that’s not affected much by immigration. We don’t have a massive refugee crisis in this country yet, so it’s so easy to say we should bring in more migrants. However, I guarantee many of these pro-open borders crowd would feel different about immigration once the largely leftist immigrants outnumbered them and began to vote for things like universal healthcare for undocumented immigrants, college vouchers for undocumented immigrants, and other ridiculous programs that are happening in California. Maybe once the state takes 20-40% of your check every month to provide for another person they’d feel different about it.

Maybe they’d feel different about immigration once they were forced out of their apartments to make room for the refugees or had to pay $20 for a soda or a bag of chips because someone from another country needs to be paid to attend college in your country. All of these things might seem like something only Europeans need to deal with, but they won’t be if we don’t abolish our welfare state. The incentive to receive benefits drove them to Europe, and it will drive them here as well.

Immigration isn’t a right. You do not have the right to travel wherever you wish. I do not have the right to immigrate into your bedroom, nor do I have the right to immigrate into your shop, your office, or your vacation home. You have the privilege to travel among property with the consent of the owner, and the right to settle in land that is unclaimed. However, you cannot expect to receive financial help from the neighboring communities should you arrive unprepared, and that is inevitably what happens in a welfare state. This problem is further exemplified in a Democratic system, whereby certain groups can legally gang up on each other to take their money.

It’s easy to be a libertarian who welcomes in the downtrodden masses, but what happens when the masses disagree with you and outvote you? Is the open borders position still worth it then?

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Chris Johncox

Chris is a writer, musician, video editor, film maker, graphic artist, and co-founder of the popular libertarian Facebook network, Being Libertarian. Despite since moving on from Being Libertarian, he has written for several other websites including Liberty Hangout, The Libertarian Republic, The Liberty Conservative. He has worked in the political industry as a campaign consultant and policy director for local campaigns in the Central Valley area of California.